More NO votes for charters

The Metro Nashville Public Schools Board of Education denied three more charter school applications. Maybe Mr. Kane of LEAD Academy is surprised--I'm not. Considering how the law and approval committees are stacked against charter schools it's nigh on to a miracle that any actually get approved.

From today's City Paper:

Board member Gracie Porter represented the board of education on the charter committee and said the process of examining charter school applications must be handled with caution.

“I can say that in any situation, you want to take all precaution in looking at everything, charter schools or regular schools,” Porter said. “You want to make sure that all guidelines are followed in making sure a quality education is delivered to all children.”

"In any situation..." If only that were so. If only the BOE actually held the Superintendent and the regular public schools to as much scrutiny and accountability as they do charters. These people see charters as direct competition to their system and power. They see the money that will go to these schools as belonging to them and their system. And yet, state law allows these people to decide who they'll be competing against (think Kroger having veto power over Publix). They can't have rogue educators out there with the freedom to create schools that actually work (KIPP Academy) . That might actually make the rest of the system look bad and endanger jobs and power. "Whatever it takes" doesn't go that far.

And what happened to Garcia's plan to turn Maplewood into a charter school? Did that die when the ink on his contract dried?